Automation Cycle: Conceptual Bizagi
From Business Process Management, BPM and Workflow Automation Wiki | BizAgi BPMS
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Automation, automate, cycle, automation cycle
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Bizagi Studio is the construction environment that transforms processes designed with Bizagi Process Modeler into applications without the need of programming. Bizagi offers a set of tools that enables you to graphically define the model associated with a business process (flowchart, business rules, user interface, etc.). This model is stored into a database and is interpreted and executed in production by the Bizagi BPM Server without having to use intermediate code.
The following diagram displays all the stages in which Bizagi Studio supports the life cycle of the process:
Bizagi Studio offers an environment of collaboration. All work is securely stored in a common environment that can be reused by other people. Bizagi makes possible cooperation among teams located in different places. Users can checkout processes, modify and improve them, and then check them in again.
The Web application resulting from Bizagi Studio´s construction has a very important feature. When the process is modified (i.e. any element of the business model) the application adapts itself automatically. This concept facilitates continuous improvement in organizations. In Bizagi, The Process IS The Application.
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Modeling the process is one of the first steps in the implementation of Bizagi . This is a vital stage because the application is defined based on the flow of the process that has been modeled.
The workflow, known as a chain of activities, is the fundamental structure of the project, to which variables and elements needed are included in accordance with organization’s requirements.
Bizagi uses BPMN language (Business Process Modeling Notation) to diagram and model the processes, providing a common notation so that the people related to the processes can express them graphically in a clear, standardized, and complete way.
To model the process, the Bizagi modeler and Toolbar is used, designed to easily implement everything from the easiest process to the most complex, and to give any person familiar with the process the capacity to model it.
As for the available design tools, Bizagi supports process models made in MS Visio and Aris.
Bizagi is a tool for collaborative development that allows multiple users can be working simultaneously on the same project, using each of the objects that make up as forms, expressions, policies, interfaces, etc. To learn more about the teamwork in Bizagi , please read the Collaborative Work article.
According to the data structure defined in the design phase of the Bizagi On Target methodology, which has the information required by the process based on the business specifications, once the process is modeled the relational model is created for the process. The relational model specifies the entities and attributes, and the relationships existing between them, allowing the information to be grouped in a simple and logical way.
The Bizagi relational model graphically and intuitively represents the data structure for the application. Bizagi gives non-technical users simple graphics tools that can be used to easily model relational databases.
The Bizagi data model presents the relationships between the activities at diverse levels. The models for presentation allow the relationship between the entities to be visualized in abstract or in detail.
Bizagi not only allows organizations to quickly create an entity - relation model, but it also guarantees the integration of the data into the process in the right context for the process flow to be performed successfully. This data model will permit the correct administration of the information, easy modeling, flexibility in case of changes, and quick consultations.
Once the relational model of the process is created and according to the forms or screens defined during the design phase of the Bizagi On Target methodology, the forms are then created, which will be viewed in a web application by the final user.
The Bizagi form manager provides unique features for efficiently creating forms and associating them in an intuitive way with the activities of the process, based on the data structure previously created (entities, attributes, and relations for the tables), generating them automatically. Bizagi permits the creation of forms or screens in the different entities, and they can therefore be reused for different activities or processes.
These forms can be modified by business analysis in a simple and intuitive way, according to the specific requirements for each activity or process. Bizagi supports a great variety of fields for designing the forms, guaranteeing the complete and proper capture of high quality information.
These forms or screens show the process information (fields, tables, links, etc. that are complemented with validations or restrictions (to access, modify, or complete the information), appearance properties, and other variables. This guarantees that the information provided in the application will be properly saved, according to the different conditions that have been established throughout the process.
As a result of this step, the end user visualizes a screen requesting certain information in accordance with the activity that is being performed during the process flow, or a screen to consult business information.
Organizations are governed under certain policies or norms, derived from the companies’ different strategies and objectives. As a result, there are restrictions, exceptions and any variety of conditions in the different activities or tasks that make up the process.
Bizagi incorporates the different business policies or rules that must be complied with and controlled within the organization in the flow of the process.
Bizagi offers a graphics tool for easily modeling business rules, using the Xpath concept as a mechanism for standardizing the language of the tools and making the management of the business rules more intuitive. Xpath permits access to any data in the relational model of the process without the need to learn programming languages.
In addition, Bizagi supports “families of business rules” where the business rules are effortlessly grouped together and configured. The centralized and shared repository for business rules permits their reuse in diverse processes and applications.
In order to integrate the information with the least programming, Bizagi offers special features to access certain components, such as predefined functions and web services.
In addition, it uses the concept of Business Policies which are defined in business terms and do not need programming, in such a way that they are easy for the client to control, who will have them available on the web application to manage them.
In Bizagi , the business rules are linked to the flow chart and can be modified or consulted by anyone who is familiar with the process, which enables trouble-free adaptability and scalability of the tool in the future.
Assigning Resources is a very important step in Bizagi modeling. In this step the conditions are configured for users with determined profiles to carry out activities within the process, according to the specifications defined in the design phase of the Bizagi On Target methodology.
The configuration of the profiles for the diverse assignment conditions to be met for an activity takes into account variables such as abilities, roles, positions, locations, and areas of the people within the organization.
Bizagi offers different assignment methods, with the objective of improving efficiency by properly directing the work to the corresponding resource. The methods available for configuring are: by load, everyone (includes all the people who can carry out the activity, but at the end only one can do it), manually or by sequence.
As a result of the configuration of the assignments, Bizagi assigns activities intelligently to the different company members. It identifies the users who meet the profiles defined according to the assignment conditions and applies the assignment method, generating pending activities for the users thus made responsible.
The integration of information systems is a challenge for organizations. To best orchestrate heterogeneous platforms and business applications, built using different technologies, adds levels of complexity that can require considerable effort to make coordinated interaction successful among the different actors.
Integration mechanisms, however (and integration software) evolve simultaneously with the software architecture techniques, making it possible to interconnect various applications with increasingly less effort in terms of time and the amount of development required to do it. A significant advance is the application of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), where the applications break their monolithic paradigm and expose a certain part of their functionality as services for other systems (service requester) to be able to simply invoke the exposed functionalities.
Bizagi as a BPM solution understands the inherent need of systematized business processes to interact with other core systems, mainframes, reporting systems, CRM’s etc., for which it uses the SOA layer to offer an easy option for external systems to interact with Bizagi .
Quality is a fundamental concept that should remain intrinsic during the entire implementation process for Bizagi projects. One of the stages of Bizagi OnTarget is the certification done by the client. Before this, however, it should be guaranteed during the build stage that all the processes meet the standards of the tools and behave as defined under all business conditions that may arise.
Wishing to offer great agility in each one of the build steps, Bizagi has developed the concept of automatic testing. This concept permits agile testing of the consistency of the process both in the data and in the flow that have been defined.
The automatic test module permits the process to be executed at any point of the development cycle using data entered manually. It can be used to execute the tests as many times as necessary. The module also permits the test to be done automatically for all the test scenarios previously defined.
The verification of the process is not only done as a unit (the process as an individual element), but also considering its integration with the other the processes it is related with (comprehensive tests). For instance, when sub-processes are involved or information is shared between processes, it must be confirmed that the integrity of the data is maintained and the system specifications are unchanged.
As a final result, Bizagi generates an application on the Intranet and it is complemented by interfaces to communicate with other systems and tools that provide special functions for the process. The Web Application becomes the work portal for end users. The model that has been previously designed and constructed is interpreted and executed in production.
The Web application resulting from Bizagi automation has a very important feature. When the process is modified (i.e. any element of the business model) the application adapts itself automatically.
This Web portal enables participants in the process to visualize and prioritize, by different criteria, their pending activities and see information in real-time about process performance. Depending on the user profile, this portal enables management of the processes, reassignment of cases when operational problems arise and taking corrective action for achieving the organization's performance objectives
This is a tool where all the case information for the different processes that are implemented is entered. It allows real-time consultation of the information generated during the flow of the process.
Bizagi provides organizations with management indicators that are fully comprehensive and easy to interpret based on accurate, real time business information, allowing process owners to make agile flow adjustments and better, more efficient decisions to optimize the performance of business processes.
Bizagi offers two types of mechanisms to monitor business activities: Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and Analytics.
BAM indicators provide information on the current status of ongoing cases and activities. The number of cases that are on time, on risk and delayed are shown separately for processes and tasks.
Analytics indicators present summaries of the cases and activities that are currently closed. Initially, the user chooses to view activities information or to view processes information.
In addition, aware of the importance of business data analysis, the user has a functionality available for generating reports based on Graphic Analysis. Users can obtain access to data through personalized inquiries using inquiry forms. Searches are made according to determined business and/or process criteria, and there is an option to generate reports based on Graphic Analysis. This gives an analytical feel to the results presented in the tables, grouping them by dimensions and calculating the functions associated with the measurements, thus offering an interactive media for surfing and generating reports with the information produced.
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